More children in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse will be a hit by the “poverty trap” two child cap from next month [February] as the Tory cut affects more families.

This is part of UK Government continuing changes to welfare benefits that are reserved to Westminster. The two-child cap on new benefit claims has until now applied to children born after 2017 – meaning larger families who had children before the introduction of the
cap were not affected.

From next month, the cap will apply to all new claimants – regardless of when the child was born. This will mean families who face a change of circumstances, such as separation or job loss, will be affected.

The cap also means that women must disclose if their child was born as a result of rape or coercion if they are to receive the financial support their child is eligible for - known as the rape clause.

The Child Poverty Action Group has argued that “if you set out to design a policy that was targeted to increase child poverty, then you could not do much better than the two-child limit.”

Commenting, SNP MSP Bruce Crawford said:

“Tory welfare cuts have been a disaster – with the roll-out of Universal Credit causing utter misery for many in my constituency and across Scotland.

“The two-child cap is a particularly unfair and vindictive approach, which will cause real problems for struggling families.

“Any one of us could face a job loss or a family break-up. The entire point of the welfare state should be to stop a change of circumstances turning into a crisis.

“It’s time for the UK government to stop this poverty trap in its tracks.”